The IGJ0 Games
We were incredibly excited by the number of experimental and
innovative games produced by the IGJ0 participants over the 4 days.
We also saw a lot of great cooperation and sharing between everyone
on all levels, include game design suggestions, small snippets of code
and techniques, and even entire subsystems like networking.

NOTE: THESE GAMES WERE DONE AS EXPERIMENTAL GAME DESIGN
RESEARCH, NOT AS FINISHED PRODUCTS. THESE ARE NOT POLISHED AND
COMPLETE GAMES!

Game Controls
Sadly, most of the games do not have documentation for their user
interfaces, and a number of the games require gamepads, usually
with specific control layouts. This is unfortunate, and what's more
unfortunate is that I don't have time to grovel through the game source code to figure out the control schemes
for each game. If some enterprising individual wants to document the
games, I'd be more than happy to put the documentation up here (mail
me at checker'at'd6.com).

Sprites
The games use sprites from various WAD files. As it explains on the
WAD file page, we got permission to distribute
most of the sprites. The sprites are included in the Binary
Archive for the games, so you don't have to download the WADs if
you just want to play the games (with the exception of the following
paragraph).

Unfortunately, we also used sprites from id Software's Doom 2, which
is a commercial game, and we can't distribute its sprites. This
means some of the binaries below are incomplete and the game will not
play properly until you obtain Doom 2! If you can find a copy
of Doom 2, you can easily extract the sprites
yourself. You can purchase Doom 2 electronically on id Software's
page. The worst part is that a fair number of the games used Doom 2
sprites (they're marked with (uses
Doom 2) in the WADs Used section), which makes it
difficult to check out the games without going through the whole WAD
extraction process. Some of the games only use one or two sprites
from Doom 2, but some use hundreds. The games will load if sprites
aren't available, but the missing sprites will load as blue squares.

If you're highly motivated but don't have access to Doom 2, you could
go into the source code and change the sprite loading commands to use
other sprites, and then recompile. It's fairly easy. You'll look for
lines that have "sprites/doom2/sprites/[name]" and change them to
point to other sprites. You need to make sure the number of views and
animation frames are the same, however, or change the surrounding code
to use the correct numbers. You can see information about the sprites
in the dudes.html file after you rip the wads.

Alternatively, you can copy other sprites into the
sprites/doom2/sprites directory, as long as you make sure the names,
and number of views and animation frames are exactly the same. If
somebody wants to make a "fake" doom2 sprites directory, I would love
to post it here (send email to checker'at'd6.com).

This was the engine sample game that everybody got when they
arrived. You roll a ball and crush the flocking people, who start
following a "prophet" when they get scared. We ended up hacking every
possible feature into this game to demonstrate the engine, so it's a
bit of a mess, as you can see from the screenshot.

Binary Archive:trunk.zip8.3MBNotes: needs UI documentationWADs Used:just about all of them
(actually, Angry God Bowling can be set to use different sets of
sprites, including removing Doom 2, check the source code) (uses Doom 2)CVS Branch: (none - this game is on the trunk, or main branch)

There are two huge armies on either side of a map, moving towards each
other. You control your troops by either telling them to run away from
a point laterally, or to "try harder" by concentrating in an
area. Combat is resolved simply, so the troop formations just eat into
each other, as you can see in the screenshot. The first army with a
soldier to hit the opposite map border wins.

Binary Archive:trunk.zip8.3MBNotes: needs UI documentation, uses the mouse to influence the troopsWADs Used:just about all of them (Red
Rover doesn't necessarily use many sprites, but we didn't
differentiate the different trunk games, so check the source code for
which ones are actually needed, I don't think Doom 2 is necessary) (uses Doom 2)CVS Branch: (none - this game is on the trunk, or main branch)

You fly a helicopter around and fight forest fires. Water is a
resource, so you have to go to a lake to fill up. The trees are
sprites, so it has the densest and most beautiful forests you've ever
seen in a game.

Binary Archive:trunk.zip8.3MBNotes: uses a gamepad, and is switchable between types of
gamepads, but needs UI documentation, also, flight model got screwed
up in recent checkinWADs Used:just about all of
them (mostly trees from the various wads) (uses Doom 2)CVS Branch: (none - this game is on the trunk, or main branch)

Two gods compete for followers who die believing in them, so the
strategy is "convert, then kill." You have a lot of tools to convert
and to kill, and the tools interact with each other in interesting
ways. A game of shapes and influence.

Marc couldn't attend the whole Jam, so this game was only worked on for
a few hours. You shine a spotlight over a sea of people, and see color
shifts that indicate infections. One type of person flows to light,
one away, and you have to try to save vulnerable creatures.

It works a bit like the old Robotron 2084 arcade game, but this is
more an artistic statement on the futility of the one-against-all
power fantasy combat game. You shoot enemies and collect a group of
people who follow behind you à la Robotron, but as you do so the
camera keeps slowly pulling out, revealing ever more clearly how
hopeless your chances really are. The game makes an amazing smooth
transition from action game to an artistic statement about the
industry.

A super-RTS, with an innovative gestural command interface and
thousands of units. It's hilariously chaotic: new units just spew
forth fountain-like from the construction yards, as opposed to popping out
every once in a while like in a normal RTS.

You command ten super-powered ground troopers, but you are stuck in
the command center as hordes of aliens start pouring over the ridges
around you. This game has personalities and pictures of some of the
Jam participants for all of the units, as you can see along the side
of the screen.

The object is to guide a fluid through various puzzles by changing the
terrain. Each sprite represents a small bit of the fluid and responds
to gravity, so the whole collectively flows downhill and acts
something like a real fluid. It's small and intimate space creates a
wonderful contrast with the wide open spaces of the other games.

Based on a book by Ben Bova. The game looks like a first-person
shooter, but with a twist. You are in a city full of thousands of
pedestrians, you have exactly one bullet, and you have to find and
kill a single unique fugitive. You have a sonar that will help you
locate him, but he can also hear it when you use it. This game is also
2-player networked, and it is the tensest game experience you
will ever have. The audio is an integral part of the gameplay. Marc
LeBlanc had the idea for the sonar, which is another example of game
design cross polination at the Jam.